I love the goldfinches. As a child I had a reader's digest book of British birds handed down, I always loved the pictures of goldfinches but never saw them in the real. Very pretty little birds .
After moving I first saw them in my late 30s . Last year to my delight they came into my garden for flower seeds .I now have them at the feeder, nijer seed as @nick615 suggests brings them in.
I'm happy with most of our garden birds. Not too keen on the thugs which steal eggs or baby birds, Crows etc, nor those which arrive mob handed and bully the locals, ( starlings ).
They seem to know where the food is and we've had up to 20 at a time on ours, plus all the tits of course, and, as they spill seed on the ground, there are all sorts of other customers waiting to clean up - until the Sparrow Hawk swoops in.
Right now I’m sitting in bed listening to a songthrush ... wonderful 😊
Other regular visitors to our garden are blackbirds, goldfinches, bluetits, great tits, robins, wrens, greenfinches, chaffinches, dunnocks and house sparrows ... there are also starlings living in a neighbour’s roof and collared doves and woodpigeons who visit every day.
It’s a bit odd about goldfinches and nyger seed ... around here they won’t take it ... I’ve wasted several pounds on nyger feeders and seed, and so I know have others in the area. Around here all they’ll take is sunflower hearts ... and they devour those by the hundredweight! 😊
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I love the goldies too - sunflower hearts are often better than the expensive nyjer seed. I even don't mind the manky starlings, if I'm honest. They keep out of the way round by the shed most of the time. I've also become very fond of Peg-leg Pete, the pigeon with the limp, even though he's costing me a fortune..... I love 'my' little wren [Sophia] even though her visits are fleeting and not always obvious. Perhaps that's what makes it all the more special when I see her. Same with the siskins and the goldcrest.
We have a flock of parakeets which are resident in a park in Glasgow, and they've been round here quite often. We're on their 'flight path'. Only had them in the garden once.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
A heron just landed on the roof opposite .. he visits every so often to see if they’ve restocked the pond he emptied years ago. They haven’t, it’s now a rockery. Herons have to be my favourite bird 😃
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I had a walk a while ago [seems like a lifetime!] just my usual one round here, and I saw a heron, a buzzard, a fieldfare and a tree creeper, all within a couple of miles of each other. Lovely
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I won a Ladybird Book of British Birds as a prize at school @Astro back in the mists of time and wondered for many years why some sparrows didn't match the picture. Then moved up to a better and bigger book as I got older and discovered dunnocks!
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
Posts
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/06/the-great-green-expansion-how-ring-necked-parakeets-took-over-london
After moving I first saw them in my late 30s . Last year to my delight they came into my garden for flower seeds .I now have them at the feeder, nijer seed as @nick615 suggests brings them in.
Not too keen on the thugs which steal eggs or baby birds, Crows etc, nor those which arrive mob handed and bully the locals, ( starlings ).
Other regular visitors to our garden are blackbirds, goldfinches, bluetits, great tits, robins, wrens, greenfinches, chaffinches, dunnocks and house sparrows ... there are also starlings living in a neighbour’s roof and collared doves and woodpigeons who visit every day.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I love the goldies too - sunflower hearts are often better than the expensive nyjer seed.
I even don't mind the manky starlings, if I'm honest. They keep out of the way round by the shed most of the time. I've also become very fond of Peg-leg Pete, the pigeon with the limp, even though he's costing me a fortune.....
I love 'my' little wren [Sophia] even though her visits are fleeting and not always obvious. Perhaps that's what makes it all the more special when I see her.
Same with the siskins and the goldcrest.
We have a flock of parakeets which are resident in a park in Glasgow, and they've been round here quite often. We're on their 'flight path'. Only had them in the garden once.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Herons have to be my favourite bird 😃
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Lovely
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...